A weekend learning Craniosacral Therapy

This past weekend I spent three days earning my first level of training in Craniosacral Therapy. There are many reasons as to why I was drawn strongly to this modality but mostly I felt the need to obtain this knowledge for my family. My son has suffered two concussions this year that has changed our lives in many ways, and of all the treatments he received there were only two that moved him forward in powerful and unexpected ways. One is an amazing Neurological Occupational Therapist of course and the other was Craniosacral Therapy offered by a local physical therapist. Not only did he receive relief from pain and structural injury from craniosacral, his nervous system released much of the trauma from his experience one layer at a time. I watched his body release layer after layer and in the days after his treatments he would experience what looked like a major nervous system emotional release, crying, yelling, with anger emerging, body heating up and so on.

I was struck by the power of this light touch approach that gently leads the body back to self regulation and self healing. In the past I have also received treatment of craniosacral from my naturopathic doctor for traumatic dental work, an over abundance of stress, Lyme/EBV, and my own traumatic brain injury with absolutely incredible results. But it was the way my body and nervous system responded to this treatment that also caught my attention. I was struck at how deeply relaxed my body became and how I felt as if I was floating just above the treatment table even with the lightest and most subtle of touch from the practitioner. Needless to say, I wanted to know more.

I have spent the majority of my life and while in business as a practitioner working with the body through the energy field first. By treating imbalances we find in the energy field, our physical body responds and releases what needs to be unraveled. I have a good understanding of basic anatomy from years of connecting the energy and sound healing work I offer to the physical response from the body itself, organs, tissues, release of emotional stagnation in the body. So craniosacral was a good opportunity to learn how I could also obtain this kind of support to my clients but from the body first versus the energy field. This was a major shift for me, but also a powerful integration of body work and energy work combined.

I was pleasantly surprised during my craniosacral class with the CST Alliance School to see that areas of stuck emotion around old injuries and chronic issues were naturally released with craniosacral treatment as well. This was exciting to witness and every time I see the power of such gentle loving touch with intention create a safe environment for others to release and regulate something in me lights up like electricity moving through the dark sky. It’s just such a powerful tool.

Over the three day course I worked on women who had incredibly heart clenching stories of injury, surgery, traumatic brain injury, loss, and mind blowing resilience. Learning how to offer craniosacral on these women was a true gift that I did not take lightly. I learned so much from their bodies and their willingness to allow me to work on their most sacred and personal selves. I held one woman’s head in my hands during a three part movement that is meant to encourage the cranial fluid in her body to flow more freely into the brain, and I witnessed her entire spine unraveling, releasing, and relaxing my hands. What an absolute honor to witness and to offer such a thing.

On the three hour drive home I had much time to process and think. I thought about how excited and empowering it now felt to be able to support my son in a physical way, to offer his body more space to self regulate and heal from his terrible injuries this year. I thought about all of the emotional things that arose within me while my classmates worked on me and the effects of being back in the environment of the area I grew up in, and I realized something so profound. After our amazing teacher Sarah shared so many lessons she had experiences from her clients and their sessions with her, I was stunned at how much she had seen, how graceful she was in somewhat dangerous situations. Mostly, how even in adverse experiences with others, she was quite capable of either holding her own personal boundaries, or sitting quietly with the client and not turning away, rather continuing to ask questions to give that person space to be heard. Which led me to fully realize that all of these modalities I have been working in so deeply have been simultaneously leading me back to loving humanity once again.

You see, when I was a child I learned fairly quickly that most if not all humans were not to be trusted and quite often dangerous. I unknowingly removed myself from humanity as a mechanism to protect myself. My parents abandoned me in many ways, I was abused in many ways, I went hungry a lot, I felt alone for many years, I felt betrayed and abandoned by those who I was supposed to lean on the most. This fracture and trauma caused my young self to walk away from humanity and into the green world. Since then the green world has saved me in so many ways but I never really got back to my love for humanity, that deeper connection we all really have to each other, and the way in which we can open our hearts to as many people as we like knowing that we are safe to do so because that is in fact our natural state. So many of us have experienced something similar as young ones and still feel so disconnected and rightly so.

As this big realization moved up through my body and into my mind the emotion grew stronger, My eyes filled up with the waters within and I began to release my long held grief of feeling a lack of belonging. Even now as I write this I still sit with this realization of how far I separated myself, and how I hadn’t realized that my journey as a practitioner was to find my way home to my own species. To listen deeper, to find what I have needed to understand about all of us, how we all have experienced trauma, that we are all simply doing the best we can with what we know, and that underneath the chaos of a hijacked nervous system sits a well of love, understanding, empathy, and compassion that was always meant to be for each other.

So I have this incredibly powerful new healing modality in my life to thank for such big shifts and awareness of myself, why I am so drawn to this work, and what healing I myself am still walking towards. I plan to continue my learning journey with Craniosacral Therapy so that I may reach a point to call myself a grounded practitioner with the overall skills I need to support others who have suffered as well. For the next few months I will be practicing my skills on loved ones who are willing to allow me to do so and working on setting up how I can offer craniosacral and what this will all look like for me. After this weekend I will be merging some of the craniosacral techniques into my current reiki and sound healing sessions, in the future I will offer craniosacral on its own as well. I have so many ideas swirling in my mind and I am just simply being patient and waiting for it all to land harmoniously.